It is a quietly absurd image: a feature of the modern rural grid planted squarely inside a structure that may be over a thousand years old, both of them now swallowed by the same dense undergrowth.

A cashel is a type of ringfort enclosed by a dry-stone wall rather than an earthen bank, and this example at Hazelfield was recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1923 as a sub-circular embanked enclosure of approximately thirty metres in diameter. Ringforts of this kind were typically built during the early medieval period, between roughly the sixth and tenth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads for a single family or small community. The collapsed dry-stone wall that survives here, where it can be reached at all, stands to around 0.9 metres in height and extends to roughly six metres in width, suggesting a substantial original construction. The site was compiled and recorded by Denis Power, with notes uploaded in August 2011, by which point the undergrowth had already rendered much of the interior effectively inaccessible.

The cashel sits on a north-facing slope within woodland, which goes some way to explaining its current condition: limited light, damp ground, and decades without clearance have allowed vegetation to take firm hold. The collapsed wall is visible in places, but the interior is largely impenetrable. Visitors with a serious interest in early medieval field monuments may find it worth seeking out for what can be glimpsed at the margins, but should expect to do more peering through brambles than walking inside. Stout footwear and a tolerant attitude toward undergrowth are advisable. The electricity pole, for its part, is easy enough to spot.